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No. 6||,2||.. Patented s'ept. 2o, |898.

. w. J. BuLLocK.

AIR VALVE.

(Application fxled Oct. 7, 1897.) (No Model.)

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mp III *MII t IIIIIIIIIIII Nirnio STATES PATENT Fiucn.

VILLIAM J. BULLOCK, lOF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF TWO- THIRDS TO FREDERICK C. ROCKWELL AND FRANK S. FRENCH, OF SAME PLACE.

AIR-VALVE.

SPECIFICATION forming part ofA Letters Patent No. 611,211, dated September 20, 1898.

Application ne@ Obaba 7, 1897.

To all whom it may concern/4 Beit known that I, WILLIAM J. BULLOCK, a citizen of the United States',t residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Air-Valves, of which the following is a specification. v

The inventionrelates to the class of valves that are more.V particularly designed and intended for use with pneumatic tires, but that are adapted for other articles which are in- Hated with air.

The object of the invention is to providea valve of this nature which will be light in weight, simple in construction, and inexpensive to manufacture and which may be closed and tightly locked'before the air-pump which is used to inflate the article to which the'valve is attached is disconnected.

The embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings has atube by means of which the valve is attached to the article to be iniiated, a valvedisk forv closing the opening and preventing the escape of air outwardly through the tube,a sleeve provided with means for the connection ofthe air-pump mounted on the tube and arranged tolock and unlock the valve-disk, anda cap for protecting and sealing the opening through the sleeve and for holding the sleeve vagainst accidental movement.

Figure l of the drawings showsa side View of an air-valve that embodies the invention with the parts in the relative positions occupied when the valve is closed and locked. Fig. 2 shows a central longitudinal section of the valve with the parts in the same positions. Fig. 3 shows a side view, with thepcap removed, ofthe tube and sleeve in the positions occupied when the valve is open;v Fig. 4 shows a central longitudinal section of the parts shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 5 shows a sectional vieW of the valve with a cap of modified construction, and Fig. 6 shows a similar view with a different form of cap.

In the views, 1 indicates the tube 'that is adapted to be attached to the article toibe inflated. The outer end of this tube is provided with a vscrew-thread, preferably a left-hand.

thread. The opening 2 through the outer end Serial No. 654,373. (No model.)

of the tube is reduced in diameter, and on the shoulder inside which results by thus reducing the opening is the valve-disk seat.

Mounted on the threaded end of the tube is a sleeve 3, the interior thread of this sleeve being left-handed if the thread on the end of the tube is left-handed. Thel outerend of this sleeve is provided with an interior thread for vthe attachment of the pump connection. The valve-disk 4, that is in the tube and is adapted to open from and close against the seat, is secured to a stem 5, which extends through the reduced opening in the outer end of the tube into the sleeve. The disk-stem is preferably provided with a head 6, that is arranged to be engaged Yby a flange 7 on the inside of the sleeve. When the sleeve is rotated so as to move off from the end of the tube, the iiange engages the head of the stem and draws the valve-disk against the seat in the tube. This locks the valve-disk in its closed position and if the threads are lefthanded is aocomplishedby turning the sleeve toward the right. If the threads` on the end of the tube and in the sleeve are right-handed instead of left, the same result is accomplished by turning the sleeve toward the left. When the sleeve is so rotated as to move onto the end of the tube, the flange moves away from the head of the stem, so that the valve-disk may be moved fromv its seat. The sleeve is preferably knurled or lroughened on its eX- terior, so that it may be grasped for turning. If there is pressure in the iniiated article to which the tube is attached and which is to be further inflated, the valve-disk is normally held closed by that pressure and can only be opened" by greater pressure applied from without; With the cap removed and the parts in the positions shown in Figs. 3 and 4: a pump can i be connected with the sleeve and by its means air forced past the valve-disk. When Athe pressure in the interior is sufficiently raised before the pump is disconnected, the sleeve can .be rotated, so as to lock the diskagainst its seat. With the valve-disk locked in this manner the pump is disconnected and a cap is screwed on to close the end of the sleeve. The cap 8 may be provided with an interior thread and IOO the sleeve with a corresponding exterior thread. These are preferably right -hand threads, and when the sleeve is in the position illustrated in Fig. 2 the cap can be screwed on until its edge engages a packingwasher 9, placed about the tube on a collar 10. If the threads between the end of the tube and the sleeve are left-handed and the threads between the sleeve and the cap are right-handed, the turning on of the cap tends to rotate the sleeve in a direction that moves it off from the end of the tube and causes it to tighten the Valve-disk against its seat. When the edge of the cap engages the packing-washer on the collar, the opening into the sleeve is protected and a tight joint is made in a manner that renders it impossible for the interior sleeve to rotate and loosen the valve-disk from its seat without first removing the cap. `When the cap is turned to be removed, the tendency of the rotation is to first move the sleeve from the position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 4, and then when the sleeve engages with the washer 9 further rotation of the sleeve is stopped, so that the cap readily unscrews from the sleeve. This results when the tube and sleeve threads are left-handed and the cap and sleeve threads are right-handed and when the tube and sleeve threads are loose, so that there will be less friction between the smaller engaging tube and sleeve threads than between the larger engaging sleeve and cap threads. Vith this construction the valve-disk is held closed by the air-pressure in the inflated article and then is tightly locked in that position by turning the sleeve, which may be accomplished before or after the pump is disconnected. When the cap is turned on, the tendency is to turn still further the locking-sleeve, for the cap when screwed on is turned in the same direction 'as the sleeve is turned to lock the valve-disk.

Thus the turning on of the cap insures the tight locking of the valve-disk and also the sealing of the joint between the tube and the cap. With the cap in place there are two joints sealed and locked in such manner that the escape of air from the inflated article through the valve is practically impossible.

lf desired, the collar l0 may be provided with a thread and the thread in the cap may be arranged to screw upon the threaded collar, as illustrated in Fig. 5, or the cap may be formed so as to screw into the interior thread in the outer end of the sleeve provided for the attachment of the pump connection, as illustrated in Fig. 6. In both of these constructions the exterior wall of the sleeve may be left smooth or ornamented, as desired.

A valve which embodies this invention is not liable to become disarranged or wear out, and the few parts of which it is composed are cheap to manufacture and easy to assemble. The valve-disk is locked closed positively and can be thus locked before the pump is disconnected or afterward, as desired. After the pump is disconnected and the valvedisk is locked the locking is made certain and the sealing is repeated, so that this valve when the cap is in position is doubly locked and doubly sealed. The parts may be so arranged that the valve-disk is unlocked by the act of removing the cap, or they may be arranged so that the valve-disk need not be unlocked until after the pump is connected.

I claim as my invention- 1. An air-valve having a tube with a reduced opening through one end, a sleeve arranged to move onto and off from the end of the tube that has the reduced opening,a valvedisk located within the tube and having a stem adapted to be engaged by a part of the sleeve when the sleeve is moved oif from the end of the tube and held so as to lock the valve-disk closed, and a cap turning on the sleeve and arranged to lock and unlock the sleeve, substantially as specified.

2. An air-valve having a tube with a reduced opening through one end, a sleeve arranged to move onto and off from the end of the tube that has the reduced opening,a valvedisk located within the tube and having a stem adapted to be engaged by a part of the sleeve when the sleeve is moved off from the end of the tube and held so as to lock the valve-disk closed, and a threaded cap arranged to be screwed onto the tube so as to seal the opening through the sleeve, substantially as specified.

3. An air-valve having a tube with a reduced opening through one end and an eX- terior thread around that end, a sleeve with an interior thread engaging the exterior thread on the end of the tube, a valve-disk located within the tube and having a stein adapted to be engaged by a part of the sleeve when the sleeve is turned so as to move od from the end of the tube and held so as to lock the valve-disk closed, and a cap turning onto and oif from the sleeve and arranged to lock and unlock the sleeve, also the valvedisk, substantially as specified.

4. An air-valve having a tube with a reduced opening through one end and an exterior thread around that end, a sleeve with an interior thread engaging the exterior thread on the open end of the tube, a valvedisk located within the tube and having a stem adapted to be engaged by a part of the sleeve when the sleeve is turned so as to move off from the end of the tube and held so as to lock the valve-disk closed, and a threaded cap arranged to be screwed into position to seal the opening through the sleeve, substantially as specified.

5. An air-valve having a tube with a reduced opening through one end, a sleeve arranged to move onto and off from the end of the tube that has the reduced opening,avalvedisk located within the tube and having a stem adapted to be engaged by a part of the sleeve when the sleeve is moved od from the IOO end of the tube and held so as to lock the valve-disk closed, and a cap having a thread arranged to engage a thread on the sleeve, said cap When turned so as to move toward the tube, sealing the opening through the sleeve and by engagement with a part of the tube looking the sleeve against movement, substantially as speoied.

6. An air-valve having a tube with a reduced opening through one end, a sleeve with threads engaging threads on the end of the tube, a valve-disk located within the tube and arranged to be locked in a closed position by the rotation of the sleeve, and a cap having threads engaging threads on the sleeve in such manner that the turning on of the cap tends to cause the sleeve to more tightly hold the valve-disk locked closed and the turning off of the cap tends to move the sleeve so as to unlock the valve-disk, substantially as specified.

7. An air-valve having a tube, a valve-disk within the tube, a sleeve turning on the end of the tube and arranged to look and unlock the valve-disk, and a cap turning on the sleeve and arranged to lock and unlook the sleeve, substantially as specified.

VILLIAM J. BULLOOK.

Witnesses:

H. R. WILLIAMS, E. W. FOTHERGILL. 

